


Velvet Likes her CFVY Dark

by TheMelancholyDreams



Category: RWBY
Genre: Abuse, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/F, Lesbian Character, Lesbian Sex, Light BDSM, Multi, Physical Abuse, Sex Toys, Shyness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2019-04-27 23:51:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14436852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMelancholyDreams/pseuds/TheMelancholyDreams
Summary: Before Team RWBY, there was Team CFVY.Velvet Scarlatina planned on spending her first year at Beacon Academy under the radar, which would've been hard enough for a lesbian faunus girl such as herself. But, her plans of isolation go awry when a girl in red begins to corner Velvet in the girl's restroom regularly, and when the girl with the brown beret and shades is designated as Velvet's team leader.In the world of the monsters of Grimm, Velvet Scarlatina must first face the monsters of Beacon Academy if she is to become a renowned huntress.





	1. Velvet's First Day

    With her tray in her hands, Velvet set foot onto Beacon’s cafeteria grounds. The cafeteria was a myriad of dozens upon dozens of first year students, already seated and in key with one another. Gone where the reds, blues, and yellows of meticulously crafted weapons, leaving only laughter and smiles amongst familiarities. 

    Velvet didn’t have any of that. What she did have, however, was the innate ability to eavesdrop on people. People that thought they were just out of earshot. She had the keen sense to hear the word “faunus” being spat rather than spoken all around her. She could feel eyes on her and her ears. Nothing new.

    She eyed an empty table, bowed her head slightly, and made her way over. Noiselessly, she set down her tray and set aside her napkins and utensils. The napkin holder had been half-untied between her fingers when her eyes caught on something. 

    In the table across of her sat a field of girls, two of which were entwined in a passionate embrace. Velvet watched giddily as the wholesome passion turned into something more forceful, but only for a moment. Beside those girls sat the one she’d seen at the welcoming ceremony, the one with the brown hat and the shades.  _ God _ ,  _ that girl looked amazing _ . She scanned the room until something else snagged her attention: two boys. They were holding hands, connecting their wideset frames with their palms. Mesmerized, Velvet utilized her senses to the maximum to take it all in. 

    That’s why she nearly went tone deaf when someone squeaked “Velvet?!”

    With a wince, Velvet looked up to see who the voice belonged to. Her heart sank.

    “Esmeralda!” Velvet feined her excitement at the green-draped faunus girl towering over her, “I didn’t know you wanted to be a huntress?”

_ Damn it! _ Velvet thought to herself.

    “I could say the same.” Esmeralda playfully hit Velvet’s shoulder, “Scoot over.”

    Reluctantly, Velvet slid her seat and gave her old friend space. Esmeralda’s genuine smile as she sat down only heightened Velvet’s guilt. Esmeralda produced a small lunch tin that looked much like Velvet’s, except green instead of gold and brown. 

    “So,” Esmeralda waited until Velvet turned to face her, “Any other cute faunus boys here?”

    “Other?” Velvet chewed. If this was all Esmeralda had on her mind, Velvet would have nothing to worry about. 

    “Well, there’s this one guy I met on the plane ride, and his wings kept getting caught in the-” 

    Velvet knew exactly when to nod, fake a smile, and even ask a superficial question about this  _ guy _ . She let her fork dawdle in the air, pretending to be interested in the way her noodles dangled in the hair like loose hair strands. In reality,  Velvet was sneaking glances at the short hair that streamed from beneath the brown beret, the way the bangs grazed against those shades...

_ Wait, shoot, what did Esmeralda say? _

    “What about me?” Velvet guessed.

    Esmeralda nodded her head as she chewed.

    Velvet swallowed an imaginary bite, then downed some of her water. Her friend eyed her patiently, but Velvet could feel Esmeralda’s excited energy emanating beside her. 

    “Well,” Velvet stalled, “There’s this guy…”   
    “...go on…”

    “No butt-ins.”

    “Then talk faster!”

    “Fine, fine. Anyways, he’s just so...” Velvet replayed the first time she saw beret-girl in her head, “...so confident, you know? The way he walks just exudes this feeling of ‘I know what’s going to happen’. Like the world is somehow at his fingertips. Isn’t that hot?”

    Esmeralda nodded, beaming at this sudden change of character before her. Velvet made it a point to never fall into Esmeralda’s boy conversations.

    “I’ve only seen this guy today, but I think I want to get to know her.”

_ Her _ .

    Thankfully, Velvet’s semblance kicked in: mimicry. Esmeralda would never know that Velvet was copying the exact mannerisms of the way another student had eaten a meal similar to hers minutes earlier. All that work― Velvet counted to 10 in her head― just to keep her cool. 

    The bell split the ears of unsuspecting students, stifling nearly all chatter with its single tone. 

    “Well, good luck with your special guy.” Esmeralda cheered, “See you at landing!”

    “See you!” Velvet waved. 

    Once she was certain that her friend was out of view, she let out a dragged out exhale and lay her face across the cool table surface. She was drained in more ways than one. 

 

    Water droplets dripped down Velvet’s chin and jaw. Some of them lingered on her face like morning dew mist. She basked in this sensation for a few moments more, then reached for a paper towel. Her fingers had barely brushed against the coarse paper when a sharp jabbing sensation ensnared her wrist. She tried to jerk her hand away, tried shifting her weight, tried moving for leverage, but she couldn’t break free from the metallic claw around her left wrist. Velvet grabbed her lunchbox with her free hand and began to wail on the metallic claw. 

    It didn’t budge. 

    Just as Velvet went in for a heavier strike against the marker-wide wire, a second claw grabbed her wrist from behind. A third set of metal fingers wrapped around the back of her collar and dug hard into her back. 

    Suddenly, Velvet was off her feet. Pain shot up her spine and down her legs as her hips and lumbar hit the tile floor. Velvet felt comfort in knowing that she’d set her camera aside before getting thrown to the ground. That was the only thought that made sense to her as she was violently dragged into the bathroom stall at the very end of the women’s restroom. 

    A white blur filled Velvet’s vision as she was lifted off the ground. The whirl terminated with a hard slam against the bathroom wall. Her aura took the brunt of the hit, but her skin still stung from the impact. She sighed in relief as the claws unhinged their holds, but that break was too short. The claws were back on her wrist and waist, positioning themselves to whirl her around. At last, Velvet saw her assailant. 

    Initially, all Velvet could make out of her spinning world of hurt was a blob of red. Slowly, the pieces focused. Red shoes. Red dress. Skin as fair as her own. A red masquerade mask that concealed only half of the other girl’s face. 

    Velvet wanted to swing a punch, but both of her arms were pinned above her head by the claws. Her feet dangled above the ground. She flinched as her captor closed the distance, but what came was much worse than what she had in mind. Instead of a knee or a fist, Velvet felt two warm hands wrapped around her thigh; the first reached around the back of her leg while the other drove between her thighs. No longer speechless, Velvet gasped when the girl in the red dressed squeezed. Velvet’s knees buckled together.

    “Good girl.” the masked girl purred as Velvet’s body betrayed her.

    Taking her body’s natural responses as a go-ahead, the girl in red ran her hands up and down Velvet’s trembling legs. One snaked under Velvet’s thin undershirt. Another delicately draped over her shoulder, as if to dance.

    Again, the girl in red elicited a gasp from Velvet’s lips when she planted her own lips against the base of Velvet’s neck. The embrace felt oddly tender. Carefully delicate. Lips, smooth as peaches, left soft kisses in various places against her neck. The kisses broke and the girl pulled away― she was the only one that could. 

    Velvet met her eyes. They studied each other as predator and prey, curious. Despite all the red, the girl had cerulean eyes, eyes that Velvet felt like she could slip under and drown in. Those eyes slid closed. The girl’s lips parted. Then, the girl took Velvet’s first kiss. Like the eyes, Velvet fell too in this stranger’s lips, hungrily.

    A rogue hand slid up past the cuff of her shorts. Dangerously high. Velvet’s eyes shot open once the hand cupped her crotch. She screamed into the girl’s mouth as fingers caressed the seams where the sleeves of her shorts met. Instead of stopping, the girl drove her fingers harder against the seams. She tried to push her tongue through Velvet’s teeth. Velvet writhed against the metallic holds and the soft palms, each a limb belonging to the girl in red.  _ She _ belonged to the girl in red. 

    The claws opened simultaneously. The girl backpedaled as Velvet collapsed to the ground on limp legs before her. Pressing herself up, Velvet sputtered for air. Each breath pushed back the darkness trying to envelop her vision. Hazily, she watched a set of red heels click their way out of the bathroom stall. They clapped, every step taking this girl farther and farther away, but the steps stopped at the door. 

    “See you at landing.” 

    Shortly, the door thudded shut. 

    Velvet threw her back against the wall and slid back down to the ground. Already, she could feel the mimicry attempt to recreate the memories from moments earlier. Velvet’s lips involuntarily parted in the exact same way the girl’s did. She washed the thought out of her wind and shook her head. Velvet stood tall, set her eyes on the bathroom door, and left. 

_ That’s what friends do. _ Velvet’s legs struggled to regain their strength as she entered the hallways of Beacon. She was happy to ignore this pain. Afterall, she’d just made a friend, right?


	2. Landing

The funny thing― Velvet learned― about being propelled scores of yards into the air was how quickly her mind could go blank. Seconds earlier, she had words running through her head like “landing”, “strategy”, and “survival”. Above the clouds, she had nothing. 

    She curiously noted that the trees beneath her feet were getting closer. _Closer_. _Closer? Closer!_ _Landing! Strategy! Survival!_

    Velvet’s arm flashed out to snag the first branch she saw, shooting pain along the full length of her arms and shoulders. Her grip on a sturdy tree branch held. She swung, let go, and fell towards another similar branch on a neighboring tree. She went from needing two hands to catch bark to only one, remembering the way she’d seen other faunus do so back in Mistral. At the base of the tree, she stuck a dramatic 3-point landing― a byproduct of her mimicry. 

    Velvet felt control over her muscles return to her in waves. She wiggled her fingers. She dusted her palms on the sides of her shirt and rolled her shoulders, gently teasing the pain. 

    The forest seemed to be holding its breath. It wasn’t normal to not hear the chatter of avians, or to not hear the whistle of the wind. Aside from the ones she’d just fallen from, not even the leaves dared to shift in their branches. 

    Then, it all suddenly came alive. Velvet could hear  _ it _ . Her ears perked up. They rotated like satellite dishes until one snapped focus. An audible image formed in her head. She didn’t need to see all of its pieces. Instantly, she was gone.

_ Grimm _ . 200 feet away, and closing in fast. The forest gave way to this approaching creature, this tormentor of all things living. Deceptively thick bark obscured most of her view, but Velvet could still make out pitch black slivers of the beast. 

    The bushes and bramble became obstacles for Velvet to weave between, under, and over. A leap over a pocket-riddled log. A sidestepping stride to clear the thin space between two trees. A desperate zig-zag around pillars of bark. The grimm followed Velvet through it all. 

    A blur of red soared past Velvet in the opposite direction. She turned to utter some form of warning to whoever this person in red was, but Velvet had been beaten to the punch. 

    The girl in red stood dominantly atop the downed grimm. She swept her raven black hair away from her half-face mask, her expression unamused yet content with what she’d done. Her spider claws retracted. In the instant that her eyes met Velvet’s, her expression melted into something entirely different.  _ Whelming? _

    “Crazy seeing you here.” the red girl pulled her blood soaked heel from the grimm’s back.

    Velvet kept an eye out for any more grimm, “Yeah, crazy.”

    Velvet turned back to look at the red girl, but reeled back when she realized the girl was reaching towards her with her palm. 

    “Oh, don’t be like that.” the girl took Velvet’s hand in hers, “Come on. We need to get a move on.”

    Before Velvet could protest, her wrist was pulled along deeper and deeper into the woods and further and further away from the clearing. She’d could’ve sworn that she’d only taken a couple dozen steps, yet she’d gone from a decently shaded treeline to a dense darkness of varying shades of brown and green. None of the vigilant crows above stirred from their resting places. 

    “My name is Narissa.” Narissa looked back at Velvet and smiled warmly, “I’m glad I found you.”

    “Yeah, me too,” Velvet eyed the garden snake slithering in her path, “I’m Velvet.”  
    Why was she with this girl “Narissa”? And where did this pleasant side of her come from? This was barely even the same person! Velvet tussled with such questions to herself, all the while having flashbacks to the events from the night before. _The claws._

    “What’s your style?” Narissa asked.

    “My what?” Velvet wriggled her wrist in Narissa’s grasp

    “Fighting style. I’m more of a defense type myself.”

    “Oh,” Velvet looked down at her feet, “I don’t think I have one of those.”

    Narissa laughed, then looked to the sky, “Everyone’s got one. Or else you die.” she trailed off with an unconvincing chuckle, “Oh shit, get down!” 

    Velvet didn’t have the time or the strength to fully cushion her fall. Above her, a massive grimm just like before had taken Narissa to the ground. There was a roar, but Velvet was unsure if it had come from Narissa or the grimm. It took Narissa only a single kick to knock the grimm off of atop of her, and soon she was on her own feet and backing herself towards Velvet. Before Narissa could react, a second grimm pounced atop Velvet. 

    It was Velvet’s turn. With her arms pinned, she swept her knee up towards her chest and kicked the grimm’s underbelly to get it off of her. Then, she was on her own feet and backing herself towards Narissa. They were standing side by side, each facing a grimm coming from the same direction.

    Narissa glanced at Velvet sideways with wide eyes, then turned back to focus on her rising grimm. Velvet had her own to face off against. 

    Narissa took two steps towards her grimm, Velvet took two steps towards her own. Narissa slung a fist to drive down the clawed paw of her grimm; Velvet’s grimm hadn’t raised a claw so Velvet used her strike to hit the crown of the beast before her. This only angered Velvet’s grimm. It went for one slash, two slashes. None connected. Velvet had evaded both swipes with a backflip.

    “Never give the enemy any ground!” Narissa commanded Velvet several paces ahead of her. Narissa drove an uppercut into the grimm’s jaw, ducked under a heavy swipe, landed a hook, then sent the beast a few steps back with a kick when it reeled.

    Velvet attempted the same uppercut on her own grimm only to realise that she wasn’t nearly as hard of a hitter as Narissa. Still, her grimm felt bothered enough to swing a lazy clawed paw for her to duck under. Her knuckles were still throbbing from the first punch she threw, but Velvet went for the hook nonetheless. Her grimm shifted it’s stance slowly and carelessly, leaving itself open to a kick that would send it backwards several feet.

    Narissa looked at Velvet with a look that was part smug, part impressed. Any ounce of surprise had left Narissa’s expression long ago. 

    “Watch this.” Narissa’s expression dared wordlessly. 

    Narissa lept into the air as she used her knee to throw herself into a spin. Somewhere just before she completed a full midair revolution, her momentum knee dropped and swapped out for her kicking foot, blazingly fast. That foot came at Narissa’s grimm from above at a downwards angle, utilizing the force of the spin and the impact of her kick to send the grimm’s head into the ground. Narissa landed on her feet. The beast never stood again. 

    Velvet’s beast roared before pulling itself towards her. She resisted the deep-rooted, primal urge within her to flee and instead lept into the air with a spin. Her first knee was the one that spun her, her second was the one that carried the kick. With one downward kick from above, Velvet’s grimm was knocked into the ground. Velvet landed on her feet, and waited. Her grimm, furious, was up again within fractions of a second and swung a paw at Velvet’s face. She winced, but the pain never came. To the left of Velvet’s face, one of Narissa’s claws embedded itself into the grimm’s. A second metallic claw met the first, and that was all Narissa needed to throw the beast away from Velvet. The beast slid to a stop. That would be the last time Velvet’s beast would be able to move on its own. 

    “How?” Narissa said between short breaths.

    Velvet was caught up in the act of catching her own breath as well, “My semblance.”

    The two of them sat down to take a moment to sink it all in. The grimm dying in the sun beside them. The crest of some stone structure deep in the horizon. The plethora of trees that polka dotted the forest with intermittent sunshine. 

    “You lied.” Narissa pulled her knees to her chest. 

    Velvet wondered, “Hm?”

    “You’re an evasive type by heart,” Narissa’s eyes glossed over with something dark inside, “You said you didn’t know.”

    “Sorry,” Velvet softened, “I’ve never fought a real grimm before.”

    The swelling darkness subsided and some of the light returned to Narissa’s expression, “Good. That means it’s not too late to change that.” Narissa got up from her resting place and pointed at the stone structure in the distance, “If I know Ozpin, then that’s probably where we need to go next.”

 

 

At the edge of the forest, the light was blinding. Gone were the constant leafy shades, and in were the grassy greens and brilliant blues of the cloudless sky. At the edge of the glades, a sharp drop off concealed the bottoms of several stone obelisks that towered high into the sky and cascaded far below the cliff edge. Between the forest edge and the cliff edge, there was a much smaller structure also made of stone. It was radial in design and looked more like a relic than a fixture when compared to the towering obelisks.

    “Hey!” Narissa pointed at figures in the distance, “They’re gonna beat us to it!” 

    Velvet squinted to make out the distant shapes a little bit better. A tinge of maroon. A blotch of green. A palette of different shades of brown.  _ Brown _ . All were running towards the smaller stone structure. Narissa had already taken off in full sprint after them. That headstart wouldn’t be enough for Narissa to outpace Velvet. Velvet’s feet kicked into high gear and the grass below her became a blur. Just over a dozen strides later, she had left Narissa in the dust. If she was sprinting before, she soon found herself in nitro mode. As Velvet closed in on the roundabout structure, she was pleased to see she had been right about the brown.  _ The girl with the brown hat and the shades. _ Velvet had successfully beaten the three running figures with seconds to spare. 

    “Grab it!” Narissa called out from behind her.

_ It? _ Velvet couldn’t figure out what singular object Narissa was talking about. Instead of a central pedestal like she’d expected, there were 12 pillars spread radially from the center of the cobblestone pavillion. The one closest to her had a single chess piece: a queen. Velvet walked past that piece, then past the next one to the right, which happened to be another queen. At the third pillar, Velvet took interest in her personal favorite of all the chess pieces. As the other three kids arrived on the scene, Velvet snatched up the chess piece of the knight. 

    Velvet could never figure out why the piece was called the “knight” when the depiction of the piece was clearly that of a horse. Even then, the piece in her hands was the head of a horse, yet her brain still toyed between the words “knight” or “horse”. 

    The band of three broke off into three different directions, each one taking interest in different pillars. Giddily, Velvet did her best to keep her cool as the girl in brown strided up to her.  _ What to say? _ None of the imaginary conversations Velvet had thought up in the shower the night before were coming to her then. Her mind was blank. The absolute hottest girl Velvet had ever seen was striding up to  _ talk _ , and Velvet’s mind was  _ blank _ . 

    The girl with the shades walked past Velvet wordlessly. Maybe Shades hadn’t noticed Velvet standing there?  _ No, that can’t be it _ . Velvet was clearly in her way, or at least in her direct line of sight. To the left of the pillar Velvet first looked at, the girl in brown grabbed a chess piece and kept it; Velvet wasn’t close enough to make out which one it was. Velvet eyed her own piece in her palm quizzically, hoping some feature of the piece would reveal its significance. 

    “Aha! At last!” Narissa announced her arrival. Her eyes were wild again. She strided to one of the pillars between Shades and Velvet, then picked up one of the queen chess pieces. Narissa examined the piece, smiled at it, then pocketed it. 

    “What are these for?” Narissa asked Velvet, but looked at Shades for an answer. Both of them shrugged.

    The scream of a nevermore drew everyone’s attention towards the tops of the stone obelisks suspended in the colossal canyon ahead of them. 

    “Look! There’s people fighting up there!” Velvet pointed at the top of one of the obelisks. She couldn’t see the features of anyone up there, but remnant glows of weapons being swung or fired and glimpses of the nevermore gave the telltales of a skirmish.

    Narissa opened her mouth to speak, but Shades beat her to the punch, “We should help them.”

    With that, the five of them raced towards the cliff edge and prepared to scale the stone towers.


	3. Nevermore

At the top of the pillar, three trainee boys were already amidst an engagement with the enraged nevermore and its deafening shrieks. 

    Closest to the edge was a boy in a red business suit. As the boy spun to dodge the nevermore’s talons, Velvet caught a glint from his monocle. In his hands were an equally red sniper rifle. He knelt to the ground, led his aim, and landed an electric shot on the avian grimm’s wing. 

    Behind the business suit boy was a comparatively under dressed trainee wearing an untucked, white shirt beneath a brown, professional vest. The nevermore rained down solid feather projectiles at Business Suit, but Brown Vest jumped in front of him with his twin escrima sticks. With one stick rapidly spinning in his palm, the feathers were deftly deflected. He used his second stick like a boomerang. It came out wide, and on the return trip would catch the nevermore from behind its back. It pulled the giant beast down to the pillar with ease. The grimm had lost all control. 

    The third and final addition was a boy in a red magician’s suit, top hat and all. The nevermore reared towards the pillar, and Top Hat stepped up to the home plate. He pointed his magic wand at the beast, but instead of firing some form of magic energy, he slashed diagonal left, diagonal right, over and over again, each swipe lengthening the wand into a girthy whip. With the grimm in range, he used an underhand whirl to wrap the length of his whip around the creature’s neck. He spun, and the momentum of the falling bird went with the whip. Velvet watched in awe as the enormous beast fell completely to Top Hat’s whim, ultimately terminating its motion when Top Hat brought the nevermore’s beak into the ground at the center of the pillar.

    Breathless, the trio of suited lads refused to put their weapons down. They watched the beast with vigilance. Rightfully so, because the bird shot back into the air, firing sharp feathers in all directions as it swirled. Top Hat and Business Suit were thrown back, but Brown Vest pushed forward with his escrima projectile deflection tricks. The nevermore unfurled its wings and swooped down at him.

    Narissa was the first to race forward. First with her legs, then with two of her metal arms like an ape. She used the third arm at the last moment to launch herself into the air. Her claws flared out and caught themselves on the nevermore’s left wing. 

    Once again, the nevermore spiraled into the ground. Before the dust settled, the big green boy paced onward with his giant sword unsheathed, and the brown boy with the bladed forearms strided past with a speed that probably could have matched Velvet’s own. 

    “Move!” Shades Girl shouted at her as she jabbed her suitcase into the air. As if by magic, the suitcase unfolded and expanded until it took the form of a gold-trimmed minigun. 

    Velvet had just enough time to flip out of Shade’s way before the barrage started. Golden rounds raced towards the black-winged nightmare. The grimm screeched back; the bullets pelted its hide with little to no effect. A smaller beast would have easily been torn in half by the same volley of shots, but the nevermore before them was impossibly large. Still, Shades refused to let up her firing. 

    Running alongside the intermittent tracer rounds, Velvet bounded towards the suppressed nevermore. The bird spun out of Shades’ barrage for just barely long enough to get its talons off the ground before the big green guy used his big orange sword to bat down the big black bird like a party piñata.

    For a moment, Velvet examined the boy with the bladed forearms. A moment was all she needed. She launched into the air the way he had a tendency to and came down with a fist strike. Blades released a quick fist combo; Velvet fired just as fast. 

    The nevermore telegraphed its next attack with a shriek so deafening that Velvet’s ears wanted to fold in on themselves. Velvet and Blades were able to backflip out of the way of its wings, but Big Green got swept of off his feet and was thrown aside. The demon bird made a soaring dash towards Shades, who quickly disassembled her minigun back down to a suitcase. She brought down her suitcase as she sidestepped the attack, downing the nevermore momentarily. She hurled the suitcase at it, caught it by the handle on the return trip, and sent the bird flying with a heel kick.

    That was part of the grimm’s plan. It caught air control, then swooped high into the sky to ready another spinning feather attack. Shades already had her minigun ready again and interrupted the nevermore’s attack with her own projectile burst. 

    “It’s too fast!” Shades tried to track the grimm’s aerial evasives. 

    “On it.” Business Suit used his forearm to steady his aim. The barrel of his sniper rifle made slow figure eights in the air, tracking its prey. Then, it barked. His electric strike landed true, and the nevermore’s rapid wings lulled at last. 

    “Bring it in!” Narissa commanded, “I’ve got a plan.”

    “Yes, miss.” Brown Vest’s face went hard. Fearful, even. He sent both of his escrima sticks spinning towards the nevermore. Just like before, it missed, but caught the bird on the return trip. It started to fall victim to Brown Vest’s pull.

    “Good.” Narissa’s claws extended and its pincers opened like skeletal tiger paws. 

    The nevermore’s eyes shot open, alert. Business Suit fired another electric sniper shot, but the bird slipped from the grasp of Brown Vest’s sticks and bobbed under the shot. It turned to fly back into the sky. It screeched when it realized that it couldn’t. 

    “Get ready!” Top Hat wheezed through his teeth. He leaned backwards and found good enough traction to pull against the force of the flapping nevermore, locking it into place in the air using his magic wand lash. 

    Business Suit had no trouble hitting an unmoving target. The bird lost its fight, allowing Top Hat to bring it into the ground again. Narissa eagerly lept atop the beast, swung around to its backside, then used her claws to unfurl the nevermore to its complete wingspan against its will. Its entire front side was completely exposed. 

    Using her minigun, Shades carved off one of the nevermore’s wings. Narissa’s claw grips readjusted. 

    Big Green raised his giant sword overhead and cleaved off the other wing in one cut. One of Narissa’s claws relocated itself again. The creature snarled in anger, but didn’t scream. 

    Blades pranced forward to the exposed torso, and Velvet followed in suit. There wasn’t time for new tricks; Velvet pulled punch combos from the wide array of options in her memory. While Blades gashed up the defenseless bird’s right side, Velvet’s fists tenderized its open left side. 

    At last, the bird shrieked. Having already lept into the air, Velvet was glad to see that she and Blades had the same idea. Simultaneously, they fired a mid air punch to the grimm’s head from both sides. The creature burst at the seams like an overstuffed water balloon, spurting grimm blood in every direction.

    Unscathed, Shades stepped out from behind her now red-armored friend, “Thanks, Yats.” 

    “Ngh.” the boy with the giant sword grunted.

    “The name’s Coco. Coco Adel.” Coco tucked her shades away. 

    “Fox.” Fox raised one of his bladed forearms with a half wave. 

    “Fox? Like the animal?” Velvet’s heart held its breath, too, “Are you a faunus as well?”

    “No, sorry.” he looked up at Velvet with milky white eyes, “Just a name.”

    “Oh, sorry, that’s fine.” Velvet looked down at her feet. She’d find another faunus, someday. There had to be more than just her and Esmeralda at Beacon. “I’m Velvet, by the way.”

    Narissa smiled at her for a second, but it washed away when she pointed at the blood covered big boy, “And you’re Yats?”

    “Yatsuhashi.” he corrected. He used his fingers to clean off his blade, seemingly disappointed that the same trick wouldn’t work on his plates of armor.

    “Nice to meet you all,” Narissa’s genuine smile scared Velvet, “I’m a Scarlet. Narissa Scarlet.”

    It was hard to take her kindness with her metallic claws towering over her. Narissa sensed this fact, and her arms retracted behind her back. 

    Business Suit slung his sniper over his shoulder, “Richmond Redd.”

    Coco eyed him up and down, “Well aren’t you lucky that red seems to be your favorite clothing choice.”

    Richmond took a bow.

    “Jackal Browne.” the kid with the escrima sticks waved with one in his hand. 

    “Alexander Maron, at your service.” Top Hat wavered his magic wand like a royal scepter. 

_ Coco, Fox, Yatsa…Yatsusu...Yats. _

_ Narissa. Richmond. Jackal. Alexander. _

    There was no way Velvet was going to remember more than two of those names.


	4. Camera

Velvet weaved her way between the people in the audience, just trying to find Esmeralda. She hadn’t had a chance to see her during training, and Velvet feared what that could have meant. She pushed past people wearing all kinds of warm colors, and people who wore cold colors.  Their weapons tripped her or jabbed into her sides as she snaked around them. A hand flashed out from the masses and pulled Velvet by the wrist.

    “Hey.” Narissa’s half-mask concealed half the smile.

    “Oh, hi.” Velvet reflected the smile back in full.

    Headmaster Ozpin’s voice droned on, listing off names that Velvet couldn’t put faces to. Every now and then, she’d glance back up only to check if any of the new recruits were faunus. She was disappointed every time.

    “Hey, which chess piece did you pick?” Narissa squeezed Velvet’s hand.

    Velvet pulled her hand away and held her arms behind her back, “I don’t remember.”

    “Well, I hope-”

    Velvet’s ears perked up at a name, “Hang on, I know her!”

    Esmeralda made her way towards the stage, somehow unrattled. As beautiful as she was, it was easy for Velvet to forget that Esmeralda was just as much faunus as herself. Her peach-scaled skin around her neck wasn’t exactly easy to conceal without looking like a groundhog from the shoulders up. Velvet was relieved to see Esmeralda make it onto the stage without any incident. Physical ones, anyway.  

    A second name― an unfamiliar one― went by. The third name called was just as alien. There to nail Velvet’s heart shut was the fourth and final name. Ozpin called out a four-letter acronym that “Velvet Scarlatina” wasn’t a part of.

    Esmeralda and her new team seemed happy together, and that notion alone would have to be comfort enough for Velvet.

    Her cheek ran hot from the sensation of being glared at, but when she looked back at Narissa, Narissa was looking the other way.

    “Velvet Scarlatina.” Ozpin’s voice cut through Velvet’s muddied thoughts.

    “Go!” Narissa pushed her towards an opening in the crowd, “Fingers crossed!”

    Members of the audience turned to see a girl with bunny ears making her way towards the stage. Murmurs rippled around her. In the very least, the attention made it easier for her to make her way towards the stage. As she did, more names were called.

    “Fox Alistar.”

    Velvet could work with that. He wasn’t faunus, but he was fast as hell. After all, they did kill that nevermore together.

    “Yatsuhashi Daichi.”

    A pang as strong as a sledgehammer smashed her piñata dreams. Yatsu-something? He was good, but not what Velvet wanted. He wasn’t at all what Velvet desired more than Esmeralda for a teammate. Velvet wanted…

    “Coco Adel.”

    As Velvet stepped onto the stage, she used her semblance to mimic the casual way the other recruits had stepped onto the stage. It drained her to contain her excitement, but she wasn’t about to flip and out herself in front of the entire academy.

    Behind her, the rest of her new team bounded up the stairs to the stage.

    “The four of you retrieved the black knight pieces.” Ozpin addressed them, “From this day forward, you will work together as Team CFVY. Led by Coco Adel.”

    That was their cue. They hadn’t even left the stage, but Ozpin was already listing off another set of names. As Velvet descended the stairs, she looked back to where Narissa had been standing. Her face was absent amongst the sea of others.

    “The four of you retrieved the white queen pieces.” the Headmaster addressed the new set of recruits.

    Now a part of the crowd, Velvet had to stand on her toes to see past the other students. She immediately sank back down once she saw who was up there.

    Ozpin continued, “From this day forward, you will work together as Team ABRN. Led by Narissa Scarlet.”

 

 

“Ground rules.” Coco was the first one into the co-ed dorm, “Nobody touch my side of the closet. Once I buy my own wardrobe, no one touch that one either.”

    “Can’t you just ask the dorms office for a free one?” Yats tried to lean his sword against a bare corner of the room.

    Coco lowered her shades to glare at him, “You think all my clothes are gonna fit in one of those?”

    “How heavy is this machine gun?” Fox came in, hugging a gold-trimmed suitcase to his chest.

    “That’s not the machine gun.” Coco pointed to a similar suitcase by the door, not that Fox could see that, “Those are just my belts, and I’m not talking ammo.”

    Eggshell white walls and negative space screamed _Decorate me!_ The drapes were paper bag brown. Holes pocked the walls where pictures from years past were once hung. Fox seemed to be the only one who didn’t mind the artistic squalor.

    “Wait,” Velvet stopped Coco from ripping an ugly stock carpet to shreds, “We should take a picture first!”

    “Why would we do that?” Coco hung up her coat.

    “For, um,” Velvet admired Coco in her black tee for a moment, “Before and after pictures, you know?”

    “That’d be cool.” Yats’ voice startled her.

    “Awesome, let me just get my...” Velvet pawed the air beside her waist, “...camera...”

      _Did someone steal it?_ It wasn’t like Velvet to lose her camera, her baby. If someone had stolen it off of her, she would’ve felt them tug the straps. She had only taken it off for the entry test, but after that, she pulled all her stuff from the locker...

      _Oh._

    Velvet was fairly certain she didn’t pull a camera out of the temp locker. She must’ve lost it somewhere before she got launched off of a cliff.

    “You should probably check lost and found.” Yats offered.

    “We’ve got one of those?” Velvet didn’t remember seeing one on the map.

    “In the cafeteria.” Fox looked up from the couch.

    “Thank you,” Velvet was already a foot out the door, “Don’t decorate without me!”

    Velvet clicked the door shut behind her. She could hear Coco groan through the walls.

    The hallway walls were alive with all kinds of chatter. Arguing, noisy laughter, the bump and scrape of furniture being rearranged.

    Velvet paused as she arrived at Esmeralda’s team’s door. Her fist hovered beside the peephole, but she couldn’t bring herself to knock. Catching up would have to wait. Velvet’s team was expecting her.

    Every door she passed sounded like they belonged to cacophonous crickets: “Move this”, “Where’s that?”, “That’s my side!”.

    The room Narissa was assigned to was at the edge of the hallway, closest to the stairs. To Velvet’s surprise, it seemed to be the one door on her floor that had pure silence behind it. She strained her ears. Still nothing. Velvet tried not to think about it on her way down the stairs, but it was too late; the chills had already begun to rake down her spine.

    Just before the doors to the grand cafeteria, a quaint woman stood behind a counter tucked into a corner. The words “Lost and Found” were painted onto a sign above the woman in color schemes too vibrant and childish for a high school. A militant one, at that.

    “Excuse me?” Velvet went unnoticed the first time, “Excuse me?”

    The woman looked up from her cell tablet, “Hey, what can I do for ya, dearie?”

    “I may have lost a camera.” Velvet mocked up its size with her fingers, “Around this big. Black, single-strap case.”

    Lost and found lady ducked beneath the counter and rifled through bin after bin.

    “Sorry, don’t think I’ve gotten one of those, yet.” the woman popped back up, “Unless if you want this broken one.”

    “What?!”

    “I’m just playin’, darlin’. In all seriousness, I’d check the bathrooms, if I were you. That’s where most of this stuff’s been coming from, anyways.”

    “Bathrooms? Which one?”

    “Hot damn, it’s only day two! How many have you been in?”

    “Right.” _Just one_. “Thank you!” Velvet waved as she left the counter.

    “Happy hunting!”

    Velvet paced down the main hall, a scene slowly returning to her. She did remember setting down her camera to wash her hands. She remembered the way Narissa toyed with her. A perfect play-by-play of that moment resurfaced. At no point did Velvet feel the strap of her camera around her neck _after_ her encounter with Narissa.

    Velvet froze. She was only a corner away from the bathroom where Narissa had touched her. Narissa wasn’t in her room. The odds weren’t in Velvet’s favor. Velvet lowered her center of gravity and started to take lighter steps. It took several steps for her to reach the wall adjacent to the bathroom door. Once there, Velvet hugged the wall tight and slowed herself down. Someone laying prone would’ve crawled faster than her newfound pace.

    There were murmurs in the bathroom. They weren’t like the murmurs in the dorms; these voices were gruff. There were male voices on the other side of the wall.

    Using just her fingertips, Velvet moved the door open at her snail pace as she stepped under the door frame. She peaked her head inside. There was no one there. She crouched a little bit further to peak under the stalls, but the stalls weren’t occupied, either.

    Velvet’s spine cracked in a few places after she stood back up. She walked over to the sink counters, but they were bare. In the very least, they were completely dry.

    The bathroom door swung open. It wooshed open more carelessly than when Velvet had handled it.

    “Looking for this?” Narissa was leaning against the door frame. Velvet’s camera hung from Narissa’s fingers by the strap.

    Velvet reached out for it, but Narissa pulled it back. She set the camera onto the bathroom floor and stalked towards Velvet, her eyes cold with hunger. Her three claws came out to play, each one an autonomous snake.

    “Were you trying to hide from me?” Narissa cooed.

    “No, I-” Velvet started to say before two of Narissa’s metallic arms pinned her to the wall. Only Velvet’s toes could reach the ground.

    “You know I hate it when you lie to me, Velvie.” Narissa rubbed one of Velvet’s ears between her thumb and pointer finger.

    Velvet didn’t notice herself panting until Narissa put a thumb to her chin.

    “God, you’re so fucking cute when you do that.” Narissa ripped her mask off and forced her lips onto Velvet’s.

    A slender chill pressed against one of Velvet’s hips. A third claw had hooked all of the fabric around her waist. As the metal hand dragged three layers of fabric down, Narissa’s human fingers played with the grooves of Narissa’s abdomen. Each time Velvet squirmed, the hands holding her up would squeeze a little bit harder.

    In one smooth motion, Narissa had stripped Velvet’s legs bare of cloth. She planted her lips against the side of Velvet’s neck. The kisses were hot on her flesh and fierce enough to make Velvet pinch her knees together. Narissa’s hands clasped around Velvet’s inner thighs, and she pried her legs back open again.

    Narissa covered Velvet’s mouth and leaned in so close that Velvet could smell the scent of her shampoo, “If you were on my team, we could do this more often. You want that, don’t you?”

    Velvet nodded.

    Narissa’s hand moved off of her mouth and down to her throat. Then, she started to apply some pressure. Her tongue flitted across Velvet’s closed lips until she forced their way between them. It didn’t take much more effort after that for Velvet to surrender completely to Narissa’s aggressive kiss. Velvet felt her eyes roll into the back of her head as Narissa’s cherry lips sucked in Velvet’s trembling tongue.

    Velvet tried to stop the hand that was brushing against the base of her pelvis, but the claws stopped her from doing so. Narissa cupped Velvet in the last place she thought she’d let anyone touch. The fingers toyed with her for a moment, brushing the stubble from a recent shave. Then, Narissa began to massage.

    A million nerve endings in Velvet’s loins fired on, high on what felt like raw pixie dust. Ecstasy unlike anything Velvet had ever felt before flooded her brain until all she could think about was her first orgasm.

    Instantly, Narissa set Velvet’s tongue free and sank down to her knees. Narissa’s fingers slipped free, and her tongue hung from her lips, but the tongue didn’t enter Velvet. Instead, it moistened the stubble between Velvet’s pussy and her belly button. Narissa clasped Velvet by her thighs. The claws released in time for Velvet’s weakened arms to grab the back of Narissa’s head. Velvet’s hips bucked out of her control and her legs started to quiver. She looked down to see that Narissa was grinning at her pussy, expectantly, as Velvet discharged something she didn’t know she could. She was so completely lost in herself that she didn’t notice herself moaning until a folded up claw slipped into her mouth with surprising delicacy. She moaned into the metallic gag as Narissa went to work on the spoils between her hips.

    Then, Velvet realized that she was becoming uncomfortably sensitive down under. She tightened her cheek muscles and forcefully spat the claw gag out, baring her teeth to refuse it reentry.

    “Stop, stop!” Velvet pleaded.

    “Stop?” Narissa let go of Velvet completely, grinning at her.

    “No!” Velvet bucked, “Fuck!”

    “Fuck?” Narissa clicked her moistened claw and brought it to her pussy.

    This was it.

    The clawed behemoth between Velvet’s legs was about to take a whole lot more than her first orgasm. Narissa bit her lip as she saw the dread in Velvet’s eyes.

    “I’m just teasing, love.” Narissa giggled and gave a quick peck-kiss.

    Velvet’s exhale was one part relief and two parts post-ecstasy as Narissa used her real hands to lower Velvet to the ground. Between her ass and the cold linoleum was a sticky substance that Velvet prayed was of her own creation. She winced at the thought of the floor bacteria intermingling with her once proudly combed hair and her velveteen ears. The fading waves of nirvana between her hips overrode the skin-crawling disgust.

    “I’ve got a few ideas for the next time already.” Narissa ran her fingers through Velvet’s hair and planted a kiss on her cheek. “Love you.”

    Every step Narissa’s heeled feet took out of the bathroom were transducted directly into Velvet’s ear, which was flush with the ground. She heard Narissa leave the camera bag beside the paper towel dispenser, too.

    Before the door shut, Velvet whispered to herself, “Love you too.”

    Completely alone, she let her watery eyes run free.


	5. Fire with Fire

Velvet peeled her head off the ground at the sound of someone entering the bathroom. A trail of saliva bridged between her lips and her phone. The door opened and the lights came on. Velvet’s clothes were still off. 

    “Velvet?” the hurt in Esmeralda’s voice reverberated off of the bathroom walls.

    Velvet shielded the artificial light from her eyes, “Ez?”

    “Oh my goodness, I’m so, so sorry,” Esmeralda lifted Velvet to her feet, “I didn’t mean to miss your call, it’s just that I was already sleeping, and I didn’t have all of my alarms set, and-”

    “Woah, hey, slow down,” Velvet’s vision went fuzzy from the blood rush, “My what? A call?”

    Esmeralda slung Velvet’s arm over her shoulder, then walked her over to the counter where her clothes were, “You called me at two in the morning, and I didn’t see until now. I’m sorry.” 

    “Thank you.” Velvet sluggishly glanced at her discarded phone as she slid her leggings back on. 

    “I didn’t think-” Esmeralda stopped pacing for a moment to hand Velvet her bra, “-of all the people, you would be next.” 

    Velvet found herself in Esmeralda’s wholesome embrace. It took her a moment to reciprocate the gesture. The bra hung awkwardly between the two of them, still unclasped. 

    It was too much. The rot of her own scent of sex, the skin-crawling amount of filth on her body, Esmeralda throwing herself deep into all of it just for her… Velvet’s semblance shut off. Dry tears suckerpunched her lungs harder than any real hit could have. 

    “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Velvet pulled herself into Esmeralda as she wept.

    The hug broke, but the tears did not. Esmeralda pushed the bra fabric back against Velvet’s breasts, and Velvet put her arms through the loops. The fabric went taught as Esmeralda pulled the clasps behind Velvet’s back, then lax after the hooks slinked back in place. Velvet’s black long sleeve was the last to go back on.. 

    “We need to hurry.” Esmeralda was furiously wiping the saliva off of Velvet’s phone, “If we hurry, maybe they won’t know.”

    “They?” Velvet splashed some water on her face and started to counter the drool.

    Esmeralda paused, “Vel, haven’t you heard? The Auburn Ballroom?”

    Velvet padded her face dry, then shook her head. 

    “This is bad,” Esmeralda started pacing again, “We need to go, now. Why would it be  _ here _ ?”

    “We need to find Oz.” Velvet was unsure of the words even as they escaped her lips. Would he even believe her? The word “evidence” burned her mind and soured her tongue. She was supposed to be a  _ huntress _ , not a… a…

    Esmeralda took Velvet by the hands, “Velvet Scarlatina, listen to me: you can never let anyone know what you know. They will take you, hurt you, make you disappear.”

    “Ez…”

    “No, Velvet, kids have been disappearing around here. Oz says they’re dropping out, but I know better. I don’t want them to-”

    “I won’t.” Velvet clasped Esmeralda’s hands, “Let’s just get the hell away from here.”

  
  


The school day dragged on like an embarrassing childhood memory. History, penmanship, aura drills. Not even a battle tactics lesson from Miss Goodwitch could hold Velvet’s attention any longer than ten seconds. She just needed to get out. 

    One of Narissa’s boys, Jackal Browne, made his way to the trough of the basin-shaped amphitheater. Ms. Goodwitch stood studiously, turning over possible sparring partners for him in her head as she scanned through the classroom. Velvet felt the instinctual pull of being glared at, watched, like the prey she was. But, it wasn’t Ms. Goodwitch staring back at Velvet when she looked up from her cowering. It was Jackal, his eyes narrowed at Velvet like a hawk. Velvet buried her face in her palms. 

    Esmeralda gave Velvet’s hand a gentle squeeze beneath the table where no one could see, “I’ll spar him.” Ezmeralda announced aloud. 

    “Ez, are you sure?” Ms. Goodwitch beamed with puzzlement, “Wouldn’t you rather spar against your friend Velvet?”

    Jackal’s gaze flitted up and down Esmeralda’s snakeskin throat, “It’s fine, Ms. Goodwitch, I’ll take her.”

    Before Ms. Goodwitch could protest, Esmeralda bounded down the steps to join Jackal. 

    “Thank you.” Velvet whispered so quietly that even her bunny ears were uncertain she had said anything at all.

    From across the room, Esmeralda looked back at Velvet and nodded. Twin kamas spun forwards and backwards with unprecedented grace in Esmeralda’s palms. As Jackal moved to his end of the room, his escrima sticks made heavy spinning swipes at his sides, brutish in form. 

    Ms. Goodwitch shook her head, “Ready?”   
    The two dual-armed fighters both nodded their heads.

    Ms. Goodwitch paused, “Go.” 

    Esmeralda sprung forwards. Jackal swung an escrima downwards at Esmeralda’s head, but her kamas caught it inches away from her face. Throwing all of her upper body strength to her side, Esmeralda wrenched the stick free from Jackal’s grasp and sent it flying behind her. Before Jackal had a chance to regain his footing, Esmeralda reversed the grip on one of her kamas. She sent the blade of it into Jackal’s jaw with a jumping upwards jab. The two of them hit the ground at the same time, except the thin boy landed spinefirst with a sickening crunch. 

    Esmeralda stood over him while she spun her blades in her palms. Then, a spinning brown blur raced towards the back of her head, completely out of her field of view. Another sickening crunch. Esmeralda’s limp body soared over Jackal as he stood to his feet. He snatched the spinning escrima stick out of the air. Esmeralda’s fingertips were the first part to come out of the tumble. She stabilized herself and slid into a defensive stance. Gripping one of her kamas by the blade and pointing its hilt at Jackal’s chest, Esmeralda was ready to engage its gun mode. 

    Velvet’s chest felt the intensity of the first trigger pull from where she sat. Mindlessly, Jackal deflected the near invisible shot with one stick. The second trigger pull―  _ did anything even come out? _ ― did nothing. He was still striding towards Esmeralda. Esmeralda’s eyes went painfully wide. She pointed both hilt-barrels at Jackal. As she rapidly fired both pistols, the space around Jackal became a blur. He had his sticks spinning impossibly fast. Sparks of shrapnel went flying with every deflection. 

    Two steps away from striking range, Esmeralda made a dash and a downward slash. Her kamas disrupted the flow of Jackal’s escrimas long enough for her to safely slip behind him. She slipped the kamas into her belt. Her arms weaved around Jackal’s neck. Then, she coddled his headlocked face as she crouched down to the ground. Her jaw started to unfurl. 

    Gasps trickled down from the audience at the sight of Esmeralda’s stalactite fangs. Velvet couldn’t remember the last time she had seen Esmeralda bare them. She winced as she watched her friend lunge for the bite, but the bite never came. Instead, Esmeralda looked up at her peers, horrified. 

    “Ez…” Velvet’s heart bled. 

    Ripples of words like “unfair” and “cheating” intermingled with words like “undeserved” and “lazy”. Murmurs. Each word was a dog, each dog a part of a pack waiting to descend upon Esmeralda. The predatory irony wrought sickness to Velvet’s stomach. 

    A simple venomous bite from Esmeralda would have guaranteed the match, but not any more than a headlock would have. The difference was that one checkmate was entertaining while the other was primal. 

    Esmeralda let her grip slide free. She looked up at Velvet, as if to ask what she should do next. Jackal had none of that uncertainty. He pried his way free from Esmeralda’s arms and threw the faunus girl off of himself. 

    She’d made it one dash, two leaps away before Jackal threw an escrima at the fleeing prey. Just like before, it missed her on the way out, then swooped back around to catch her on the return trip. Esmeralda bobbed beneath the spinning trap. What she didn’t account for was for Jackal to hurl his second stick at her like a throwing knife. It connected with the back of her head. Down she stumbled, eventually landing atop the same escrima stick that had downed her. Then, the stick beneath her began to pull itself back towards its owner. 

    Esmeralda was flying back towards Jackal by the time she snapped out of her daze; her feet weren’t even touching the ground. Jackal wound up for an overhead strike. In the instant before impact, a kama flashed free from Esmeralda’s belt loop and went up to protect her face.

    “Enough.” Ms. Goodwitch winced as the blade clattered across the floor.

    Esmeralda’s aura flickered off. Immediately beneath the layer of aural protection, Esmeralda was fine. Her skin was without contusions or abrasions: perfect. It was in the layers beneath the skin that Velvet could see the tired resignation of a person at the precipice of death.

    Ms. Goodwitch muttered something about paperwork, “Next.”

    There were no volunteers. Ms. Goodwitch’s razor eyes combed through the amphitheater until they landed on Velvet’s. The teacher’s gaze went soft on her. She moved off of Velvet, resharpened her stare, and kept looking for someone that she thought was good enough. Someone that wasn’t a faunus. Someone that could fight without their primal instincts.

    “Miss Scarlett, would you like a sparring turn?” Ms. Goodwitch found her mark.

    Too bad the teacher picked a bad apple.

    “Sure thing.” Narissa had the smug grin of an innocent preppy.

    “Now, for your partner-”

    “Me.” Velvet stood out of her chair. 

    “You- what?” the quizzical look in Ms. Goodwitch’s face only fueled Velvet further, “Thank you, Miss Scarlatina, but I was talking to Miss Scarlett.”

    “I know. Put me in the ring with her.”

    A flicker of a sadistic smile flashed across Narissa’s face. Narissa practically skipped down the stairs, her dreaded box bouncing behind the small of her back just as innocently as she was. 

    “Good luck.” Esmeralda whispered as they passed each other on the stairs.

    Despite the dozen other kids watching her, Velvet felt like she was on freshly cleansed lungs. Her fingertips tingled as she primed her semblance.

    “Do you have a weapon, Miss Scarlatina?” Ms. Goodwitch switched to a maternal tone.

    Velvet looked at her fists, “Not exactly.”

    “Hm.” the teacher waived further judgement, “And what about you, Miss Scarlett?”

    Behind Narissa’s back, the box cracked open. Three tentacles slithered free into the air above their master. They clicked open and shut, taunting Velvet. 

    “Very well. Go."

    Unlike the fighting styles of the other kids in the room, Narissa didn’t rush headfirst. Narissa wasn’t in a fighting stance at all. Instead, she rubbed her palms together, waiting. The tug of poorly concealed pleasure pulled at the corner of her lips.

    Velvet raised her fists. As Velvet inched forward, Narissa held her lax posture. The smile bloomed in full. Velvet crossed the distance between themselves in a heartbeat. All three of Narissa’s claws turned on Velvet, each trying to grasp a different limb. Velvet halted just out of their range, then slid a half step back. Sliding back in danger close, Velvet fired a push kick at Narissa’s chest.

    Narissa parried her way past the kick and, with her fist raised, stepped even closer to Velvet in one fluid motion. Velvet pushed the first fist strike away from her face, absorbed the second face-jab with a last minute block, then blocked a third strike that was aimed at her abdomen. It was the fourth strike to Velvet’s forehead that sent her flying backwards. As she soared to the ground, the metallic cranks of Narissa’s claws followed close behind.

    A claw clasped around one of Velvet’s ankles. Hot white pain burned into Velvet’s shoulders as the other two claws took hold of her there. Then, she was airborne again. Through the spinning images in her mind, Velvet could do nothing about the ground that was screaming towards her. Narissa and her claws whipped Velvet into the ground over and over again like the faunus girl was nothing more than a wet shower towel. 

    Velvet’s abs felt like they were being torn down the center as she spun herself free from the claws. She stuck the landing. Three serpentine claws slinked towards her again. Each time they made a snap at her, Velvet sent them back to their master with a sidekick. Livid, Narissa finally took multiple foolish steps forward with her claws whipping wildly at Velvet. Distance and sound: those were Velvet’s primal instincts. She could precisely hear the pattern of the whipping claws. Between the beats, Velvet flashed into danger close range once more. She tackled Narissa to the floor. She felt the ground around her shudder as Narissa’s claws writhed to get Velvet off of her, but it was too late. Velvet had Narissa in a headlock. 

    “Who’s the bunny now, bitch?” Velvet whispered into the ear of her prey. 

    Ms. Goodwitch watched for way longer than the five seconds Velvet needed to win the match. 

    “Time! Point! Match!” Ms. Goodwitch’s awe turned to horror. 

    Velvet didn’t hear any of it. With no venomous teeth of her own, Velvet started to constrict harder. To her delight, Narissa’s claws retracted the harder she squeezed. Velvet’s chest pounded with exhilaration. She was in complete control, now. She looked down at her victim, surprised to see that a red-faced Narissa was smiling back at her with puffy cheeks. Narissa’s eyes were tinged with pleasure. 

    She was damn near aroused.

    By the time Ms. Goodwitch started using her wand to pry the two of them apart, Velvet had already released her hug of death. She felt numb as the telepathy carried her to the opposite end of the arena and set her on her feet. All the while, Ms. Goodwitch was chastising her. Velvet’s ears had already turned numb. She bounded up the steps, grabbed her bag, and made for the door. She could hear her instructor getting louder, but the words weren’t registering. Esmeralda tailed behind her. 

    The sensation of being glared at again caught Velvet one foot out the door. At the bottom of the amphitheater, a winded Narissa was studying her. There was no telling where the contempt began and where the arousal ended with that one. 

  
  


Esmeralda didn’t ask where they were going. She didn’t ask Velvet anything. Instincts like those were why they were friends. Once Ez had pieced together that Velvet was headed back to the dorms, Velvet could sense some of the tension radiating away. Velvet wanted to tell Esmeralda what Narissa was, that the girl in red deserved far worse than what Velvet had inflicted, but the words sounded overripe in her head. Guilt consumed the majority of Velvet’s remaining headspace. None of her thoughts were coming out cleanly. 

    “Hey,” Esmeralda stopped Velvet from shutting the door on her. 

    Velvet snapped out of her autopilot mode. Her tired eyes flicked up to meet Esmeralda’s. Velvet could hear Esmeralda’s vocal cords struggle to strum coherent words, and her lips were starting to get wavy.

    Esmeralda shook her head and slipped free from Velvet’s doorway. Velvet counted twenty or so footsteps before she clicked the door shut. 


End file.
